Long Walk Back To Reality
by Ruby Sunrise
Summary: Jean, Scott and Logan decide to take twelve teenage mutants to camp for two weeks. Clearly, they're out of their minds, but Storm, Gambit, Forge, Angel, Iceman, Beast, and all the rest can't wait to wreak havoc on the great outdoors! pretty much AU
1. A Rocky Beginning

_How did I ever get roped into this? _Wolverine wondered. _'It'll be fun,' they said. 'It'll be easy,' they told me. Ha! And I thought Sabretooth was a liar… _At the moment, Logan was sequestered away in a remote section of New Hampshire, and while he normally enjoyed being closer to nature and often found solace within the wilderness, on this _particular_ occasion, he was one of three chaperones to a group of twelve young mutants, and he'd never been more annoyed in his entire life.

Scott and Jean had decided to take the teenagers from the Xavier Institute on a camping trip in an attempt to get them to further bond, as well as to give them an opportunity to practice using their powers in an area that was safely away from the rest of humanity. However, after Scott realized that there were eight male students in attendance at the school, as opposed to only four female students, he petitioned for Logan to join him as a chaperone. "You're a vital part of this team, and these kids really look up to you," Wolverine recalled him saying. "Come on, there's no way I can watch eight teenage guys all at once, but with you there, they'll be too afraid to try anything!" Well, those were some famous last words if Logan had ever heard them. On the bus ride _alone_ he'd had to keep Bobby from pantsing everyone else in the vehicle…including Scott, who was driving.

And then of course, only when they'd finally arrived did Wolverine find out that he'd have the self-proclaimed 'ladies' man,' Remy LeBeau, in his cabin. _It'll be all I can do to keep up with __**him**__ during these two weeks, forget about anyone else. _Along with Gambit, Logan was also in charge of Angel, Nightcrawler, and Colossus. Only after the first day did he realize that it was going to be a problem that he could neither teleport nor fly.

Jean's cabin consisted of Storm, Psylocke, Polaris, and Dazzler, four of the most beautiful teenage girls in the world, and it became clear pretty fast that it would be difficult indeed to keep the boys from fighting over them. After all, under Cyclops' care were the two most mischievous mutants in the entire school – Bobby "Iceman" Drake, and Hank "the Beast" McCoy, who also happened to be best friends. And of course, rounding out his cabin were Alex, his younger brother, and Forge, Storm's on-again, off-again boyfriend; two forces who were in and of themselves handfuls. Yes, Logan was pretty sure that this time he and the other leaders had bitten off much more than they could chew. _I think I'd actually rather be fightin' those freakin' Sentinels right now. At least I wouldn't be stuck listening to these guys plan panty raids when they think I can't hear them anymore._

It was a strange situation all around, especially since not all of the teens really knew each other that well. While Hank and Bobby had already formed a tight bond, poor Piotr could barely remember everyone's names. And although Alex and Lorna had immediately hit it off, it seemed as if Alison was going to blind Kurt for not leaving her alone. On the other hand, Remy and Ororo were so close that it was almost difficult to get them to talk to the others. They had both endured very rough childhoods, and seemed to find comfort within their friendship that they couldn't glean from relationships with their other companions. Jean was aware that they had come to the Xavier Institute together, after knowing each other for several years beforehand, but she also knew that if they couldn't discover ways to connect with the other mutants, the future of the X-Men would be in jeopardy. Recently, Jean had found new hope in the fact that Storm and Forge had been dating, but it had been quite a bumpy relationship, and when things went wrong between the two of them, they went _very _wrong.

Taking all this into consideration, Logan had a hard time picturing anything but a grueling couple of weeks filled with teenage drama and angst, neither of which he was very well-versed in. As he made his way over to stop Alex from creating a hole in the ground with his plasma blasts for an Olympic-sized swimming pool, it was all he could do to resign himself to the fact that it was going to be the longest two weeks of his life.

And it had only just begun.

* * *

* I hope you guys really enjoyed the beginning of my new story, Long Walk Back to Reality. Please be sure to review and let me know what you think! Just as an obvious disclaimer, Marvel characters are still not within my possession, but all of my story ideas are my own intellectual property. Expect another chapter up soon, and in the meantime, have a wonderful week!

Until next time,

_**Ruby Sunrise**_


	2. Unforeseen Issues

* AN: I hope you enjoy the second chapter of "Long Walk Back to Reality!" I own no X-Men characters (though I desperately wish I did) and reviews absolutely make my day! Thanks for reading!

* * *

Scott Summers was the kind of man who didn't often sleep long enough to dream. He had always been an early riser, waking up in the wee hours of the morn to plan out his day, but he had promised Jean before they left to take the teenagers camping that he would do his best to relax on this trip. Therefore, the first night that they had all settled down into their cabins, he had taken a mild sleeping pill, knowing that his young wards would most likely enjoy the chance to sleep in for once as well. _What a great surprise this will be…I'll let them sleep until eight o'clock! _ To the fearless leader, resting until eight in the morning seemed like a gift fit for kings. If only he could have foreseen what his intended generosity would bring him…

_ Cyclops was in the middle of a reverie where he lay at the edge of a beautiful lake, basking in the warm glow of sunlight. The tranquility of the scene was so peaceful; he watched deer come and drink from the water, the leaves stirred in the breeze, and there wasn't another soul around for miles. **Ah, true relaxation, **Scott reflected. **Perhaps I'll go for a swim. **The X-Man entered the water, pleased to discover that it was neither too warm, nor too cold. He reclined lazily in the tepid pond, allowing the rays of light to wash over him…but suddenly, Scott realized that something was amiss. He had just felt a shooting pain up his leg. **What the heck was that? ** He turned around, searching for any nearby aquatic life that could possibly have injured him, but he saw nothing. Abruptly, the sensation came again, this time in his arm. **Ye-owch! Seriously, what is going on here? **It was then that he began to notice the tendrils of ice wending their way through the water. The pains occurred each time he got too close to one of the strands, but it was getting harder to dodge them as they started to transform the lake. Soon, poor Scott was caught in the midst of a frozen pool, the all-consuming ice inching its way closer and closer to him, until finally, it made direct contact with his entire body…_

The intensity of the cold was what eventually woke him up. When Cyclops emerged from his own personal dreamscape, he found that he was completely frozen to his bed. His very teeth shivering, he tried to make sense of his surroundings. It was only then that he noticed four teenagers standing around him, laughing like hyenas…and Bobby Drake completely in his ice form. "Bobby! Unfreeze me right now!" He commanded through blue lips.

"No can do, O mono-orbed one. This prank is too classic!" Bobby and the Beast slapped each other high-fives as Alex and Forge clutched their sides in fits of hysterics.

Scott was completely at a loss of what to do. He wasn't sure if he was more angry or more concerned that no one would ever find his cold, dead body. As he tried to formulate a plan, his younger brother Alex finally calmed down enough to say something. "Alright you guys, this was funny, but don't you think it's time to warm him up again?"

"Only if he promises not to bust us too bad," Forge replied. He leaned in close to Scott. "No hard feelings, okay? We like you a lot, we just couldn't pass up the chance to haze you a little."

"That would mean a lot more to me if I could feel my toes right now," Scott stuttered out.

"Okay, okay, you're right. We don't need a human popsicle on our hands," Bobby answered. "Hank, get him outta there."

Beast looked blankly at his best friend. "What do you mean, 'get him out of there?' Are you under the impression that I have some kind of magical skills that you don't?"

Bobby looked at Henry, then back at Scott, then back at the other guys in the room. His eyes widened in dismay. "There's a slight chance that we may have a problem here…"

* * *

Wolverine had woken up with the sunrise in order to have at least one peaceful hour to himself. He'd spent the entire night trying to keep his own four guys in line: Remy kept sneaking over to the girls' cabin, while Angel continually led poor Colossus to believe that all the dirty words in English were actually pleasant things to say to others. Kurt had eaten an entire pack of pixie sticks five minutes before they were due to go to sleep, and when the sugar rush had hit him, he teleported around the room so fast that for a good twenty minutes, Logan couldn't catch him. _I don't remember bein' a kid, but it sure as hell couldn't have been anythin' like **that**_, Wolverine thought to himself. He stood in the middle of a clearing between the three cabins the X-Men occupied and began practicing martial arts in order to soothe his stress level before the day began.

Unfortunately, his sense of serenity was fleeting at best, as he was soon interrupted by the slamming of a screen door. It came from Scott's cabin, and the early riser was a fairly panicked Havok. "Logan, come quickly!" He ran over and grabbed Wolverine before hurtling back towards the door.

"Kid, what is it? What's wrong?"

"It's my brother," he said hurriedly, shoving the older man inside the cabin.

Logan didn't know exactly what to expect when he entered the other guys' room, but it certainly wasn't what he was confronted with. Bobby was standing near Scott's toes, trying to melt the ice off of them with a hairdryer. Forge was applying Bengay on Cyclops' stomach, and Henry McCoy was rounding out the team by breathing heavily on Scott's fingertips. If there was any time in his life that Logan wished he had a camera, this was definitely the moment. "So Scott, any trouble during the night?"

"Just get me out of here, old man. And wipe that dumb smirk off your face," the X-leader quipped.

Wolverine laughed. "Hey fellas, I hope you're prepared to do some serious grunt work once you get ol' One-Eye unstuck."

"Ha-ha, Logan," Bobby said, pausing to turn the blowdryer up even hotter. "This seemed like a good idea last night!"

"What a shame that didn't pan out, huh?"

"Well, you shoulda seen his face when he woke up and realized he was totally at our mercy!"

Hank leaned over to Bobby. "Looking back, we should have borrowed makeup from Betsy to really complete the prank."

Iceman smiled, honored to have such an ingenious best friend. "Next time, buddy. Next time."

"THERE WILL NOT **BE **A NEXT TIME!" Cyclops bellowed.

"Alright, alright, all of you, move away from him," Logan said. "Scott, I'm gonna cut ya out."

"Cut me out?! What, are you crazy?"

"Buddy, just trust me. I've been alive almost a hundred years more'n you, and I know how to get outta all kinds o' situations."

The four youths quickly stepped back as Wolverine unsheathed his claws. He carefully calculated just how deep he would need to cut to release Scott without injuring him, and began his precise work. In a matter of minutes, their fearless leader was once again able to move, but it was fortunate for Bobby, Forge, Hank, and Alex that his limbs were not in full working order yet. He leapt from the bed as best he could, hobbling after them as they raced out the door, sprinting for their lives.

Wolverine smiled a feral grin. _Now that's the kinda wake-up call I could get used to._


	3. Morning Glory

* AN: Well, it's been a long time, but here's the next chapter! 2011 has, of course, not brought me closer to ownership of these characters, but at least it spurred me to a new brainstorm for this story :-) Happy New Year to all you faithful readers out there, and I hope you like the next part of…

**Long Walk Back to Reality**

As soon as the door snapped shut when Logan left his cabin, a pair of red eyes popped open, two crimson pinpoints mingling with the dawn. The boy they belonged to shimmied out of the top bunk, and slipped into jeans and a sweatshirt before easing himself out the door. Silently, he crept around the edge of the building and headed towards the girls' cabin.

Upon reaching his destination, he extended a slender finger to tap on the window nearest to his best friend's head and watched as she rolled over, already conscious and fully dressed. She waved lightly and motioned that she would be right out. When they met up at the back of the cabin, the pair began heading towards the woods for their regular morning walk.

"I wasn't sure if you were going to come today, since we're kind of on vacation," Ororo said lightly, as the sun began to ascend the sky.

Remy scoffed. "Beb, we do this every day. Simply bein' in closer quarters wit' de ot'ers ain't gonna stop me from comin' to pick you up." He reached for her hand as they crossed over a small stream, both hopping deftly from stone to stone in the riverbed. "What you think o' dis campin' crap so far, anyway?"

"It's okay." They landed on the other side and began wending their way through the foliage. "Being around different plants and wildlife from what's at Xavier's is pretty cool, but MAN is it hard to get used to having that many girls in such a small area."

Remy smiled slyly. "Fo' me, dat's my favorite part."

"Yeah, big surprise, goofball," she laughed, playfully shoving him off the path. "Well, at least the first night with them wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, I guess."

Remy quickly returned to her side, and they continued walking. "Why, what'd you t'ink was gonna happen?"

"I don't know…endless gossip, sitting around in our underwear talking about getting married, having a discussion about which tampons are more absorbent, whatever."

"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Remy doubled over in laughter. "An' people say I'm sexist…where you learn t' think like that? Nobody does them kinda things!"

Ororo's ears tinged red. "Girls in movies act like that all the time. I've never had a close female friend before; I just figured that's how it goes." She stopped and leaned against a tree, turning away from her companion.

Seeing that she was embarrassed, he lightly touched her arm. "Look, I'm sorry fo' laughing. I mean, how were you s'posed t' know that that ain't how things are like?" He moved in front of her and brushed a piece of hair out of her eyes, trying to make her look at him. "Hey, not like I'm any kinda expert anyway. Only girl friend I got is you." She tried to conceal it, but he caught a small smile at the edge of her mouth, and broke into a grin. "Yeah, I _bet_ you like bein' de only lady who's privy t' my secrets, Stormy. After all, people have died in the quest t' discover what I know!"

"Only because you hide it in the darkest and most frightening place on Earth…your mind." Her smirk was highly apparent now and Remy shook his head.

"I see how it is, I shower you wit' compliments while you make jokes. Shameful."

"You know it!" Ororo leaned over and placed a smacking kiss on his cheek before grabbing his hand and starting them down the path again. "So, you want to know what we really did last night?"

"You mean besides th' wild sex tape I'm expectin' to see online any day now?"

"Ha, ha, ha. You're a friggin' comedian, kid." She rolled her eyes while Remy looked pleased as punch. "No, we just like, split some candy bars and played cards, and they asked me where you and I used to live before this – "

"Oh, so dey did mention me!" Gambit nodded smugly. "De ladies, they never can resist a Cajun."

"I'm pleased you think so highly of yourself. Don't worry, I made sure to tell them you were gay."

"WHAT!" Remy's roar of disapproval was well worth the laugh that Ororo had.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did you not want people to know?"

"Girl, I'm gonna kill ya…" He reached for her, but she dodged out of his grasp and sprinted off down the pathway, still laughing. He chased after her, leaping tangled roots and scuffling the fallen leaves. The two teenagers tore in and out of the sunlight that streamed through the branches, their shadows dancing with the trees, until they finally reached the edge of a clearing and stopped to catch their breath.

"No…need…to go jogging…this week," Ororo breathed heavily, smiling at her companion.

Gambit slumped to the ground and pulled her down with him, nestling her between his legs. He continued to take deep breaths, filling his lungs with the cool, forest air as she leaned her head on his chest.

"I can hear your heart, Rem. It's wicked fast."

"You made it dat way, chere." The pair rested in the midst of the trees, looking out into the clearing.

"It's so beautiful here," Ororo murmured, letting her eyes droop a little.

"Yeah." The scent of his friend's hair mixed with the smell of the wildflowers for Remy. "Place like this, you'd be right at home, 'Mother Nature.'"

Ororo smiled at the nickname before letting her mind drift away for a few minutes. All she could feel was the comfort of Gambit's body, the cool breeze floating through the trees, and the warmth of the dappled sunlight that fell all around her.

After a little bit, Remy gently nudged her from her reverie. "So, anything else you an' your roommates talked about, padnat?"

"Mmm, yeah." She stretched slightly before answering. "We talked about how you and I met."

"Really? Well, tell me the story again, Miss 'Ro." He stroked up and down her arm, coaxing the tale out of her, and her smile wove its way into her words.

"We were fourteen years old. I was too small, and you were all bones, but together, we fulfilled a promise that had been made many years before. When I was born, the midwife told my mother that I would have a lifelong companion, someone who would always search for me when I was in darkness. When Mama died, I slept in alleyways and lived off food found in trashcans, but I knew I had to keep going because someone kind was searching for me in every shadow. So, in each corner, I left some of my tears and my heartache behind, hoping my friend would find the trail and someday discover me. One morning, I shed my last tear for the life I had lost, and despaired, thinking that now that I had no sadness, my companion would never reach me. What I didn't know was that before I met you, I had to get rid of all my sorrows, to make room in my heart for our love and our friendship.

"That evening, as I curled up to go to sleep, I felt colder than ever before and realized my shadow was missing, the one thing that I had to wrap myself in. I went to search for it while the sun set over the city, and found it dancing with another silhouette; the flickering shade of you. As we both reached to reclaim the traces of ourselves, our hands met in a burst of energy. I looked into your eyes, and you looked into mine, and the last rays of the sun filled us with warmth that extended to the tips of our toes. Underneath the street lamps, we danced with our shadows, full to the brim with the love we had searched for for so long, a friendship that we had been promised would last till the end of time."

The words enveloped the two of them in intimacy, and Remy felt himself blinking back tears as he held Ororo closer. He had forgotten how much he loved to hear her tell their story. It didn't matter that it was embellished; what mattered was the emotion behind it, which had bound the two friends together, despite life's uncertainties. For the moment, it was simply enough for them to be together in the cool morning air, sharing the first hours of the day and marveling the beauty of creation.

This time, Ororo was the first to stir. "Hey, I forgot to ask you, what was your first night camping like? How are the guys in your cabin?"

"Was fine, actually." Remy smiled as Storm shifted onto his right shoulder, so she could see his face. "De guys I'm wit' are cool, 'specially old man Wolverine. He didn't even go crazy when Colossus tripped an' went into his armored form as a reflex."

"Why would Wolverine get upset about that?" Storm wondered.

"'Cause Piotr landed on Logan's bed an' snapped it in half. He had t' sleep on de floor last nigh'." The two best friends glanced at each other for the briefest of seconds with eyes full of mirth, before breaking out in peals of hysterical laughter.

Ororo desperately tried to catch her breath. "Po-poor Piotr! I can just see it, the bed breaking up like matchsticks!"

Gambit gave another hearty chuckle before trying to calm himself down as well. "He was so embarrassed. He wanted t' build Logan a new bed, but Logan tol' him it was okay, dat sleepin' on de floor was what campin' was all about."

Ororo nodded her head. "He would say something like that. He really is a nice guy."

"Yeah, I got pretty lucky, gettin' him as a counselor. On de other hand, I wonder how **your** man is doin' in ol' Scott's cabin?" At that moment, both Remy and Ororo were surprised to actually see Forge, sprinting through the clearing, followed closely by Alex, Bobby and Hank.

"What the –" Gambit began a minute later, completely dumbfounded, but he was quickly interrupted by Scott, who was the next to show up, decked out in Star Wars pajama bottoms.

"Yeah, you'd BETTER run!" He slurred icily, hobbling after his four campers.

After he was out of sight, Remy turned back with eyes wide towards Ororo. She shrugged. "Well, at least Forge seems to be getting some good exercise."


End file.
